Faculty members eligible for tenure this year are putting together portfolios to give to DePauw’s Committee on Faculty (COF), hoping they will be provided with the title that essentially offers lifetime job security.
Tenure is a widely debated policy that provides job safety for teachers and professors across the country. DePauw University professors are able to apply for it in their sixth year of teaching. Tenure is granted on the basis of teaching ability, professional development (research) and service to the university.
Professors up for tenure this year include both mathematics professors Suman Balasubramanian and Naima Shifa as well as art and art history professor Pauline Ota.
In professors’ third teaching year, the COF, led by English professor Susan Hahn, does an interim evaluation, otherwise known as a third year review. During this time, the COF assesses the professors’ work thus far and gives them advice on how to hone their skills and reach the teaching level that will make them worthy of tenure, according to Hahn.
“[The COF] read that report, and they read the file, and then they draw a conclusion,” Hahn said. “So in the third year review, they might say, ‘Here’s what you need to work on, here are your strengths. I think those third year reviews are really important, because that’s when you identify the faculty member… By the sixth year, we should already know if the faculty member is on track for tenure.”
Professors up for third year review this year include psychology professor Susanne Biehle, sociology and anthropology professor Danielle Kane and political science professor Christopher Marcoux.
After being reviewed by the COF, the professors must apply the advice and criticisms given to them and build their files to turn in to the COF during their sixth year. In addition to reviewing the file, the COF also looks at student opinion surveys and letters written by students.
According to Vice President for Academic Affairs Larry Stimpert, granting tenure is not something that is taken lightly.
“If you don’t get tenure, you have one more year that you can stay at DePauw, then you have to leave, so it’s a big deal for faculty members when they go up for tenure,” he said.
The process is not something faculty members take lightly either. Ota said the process has been “stressful” for her.
She added, however, that the interim review helped to prepare her for the tenure process.
“I think it’s less [stressful] at DePauw just because this institution…supports professors and guides them toward that tenure goal so that interim review is part of that process,” she said. “In 2012, I went through the interim process, and so that already gave me a hint into what the tenure process would be like, and through that process they let you know what you need to work on.
Another difference between DePauw and other institutions in the tenure process is the idea of an open file process. While many other institutions have student letters hidden from the faculty member, at DePauw, the professor is allowed to read all of the letters that students write about him or her and is given an opportunity to respond.
Hahn said she feels the process has more ups than downs.
“Over the years at DePauw, we came to the conclusion that if a person was going to secretively say bad things about a person, and then the person doesn’t get the chance to respond to that then that wouldn’t be a fair process,” she said.
Stimpert said he encourages students to take the student opinion surveys seriously and write letters, whether positive or negative, because the COF does read every single one of them.
“We certainly welcome positive feedback as well as negative feedback, any feedback that students want to provide about a faculty member, both in class and out of class,” he said.
Debates on the effectiveness and necessity of tenure are not uncommon. Stimpert said, however, that the reason for tenure is rooted much deeper than simply providing job security for teachers across the country. He said, particularly at the collegiate level, tenure provides the ability for teachers to teach material that may be controversial without fear of losing their jobs.
“There have been a couple times in history when academic freedom concerns have been very important,” he said. “Higher education institutions are really the conscience of our society in some ways, and it’s important that people are protected to be that voice, to be that conscience of our society.”
However, Stimpert also added that once tenured, professors still have to perform.
“I think it’s important to emphasize that tenure at a college or university does not protect people that are ineffective in their jobs," he said.